AQA Unit 3 Ideologies

POLITICS

UNIT 3; IDEOLOGIES

LIBERALISM

KEY FEATURES

• Associated with the individual and freedom

• Rationality: differences in opinions are inevitable, free and rational individuals should be able to solve problems

• The government should be chosen by consent- links to Rousseau ‘The Social Contract’ 1762

• Government should be limited by the separation of powers

• Everyone should have inalienable rights

• Everyone is equal, respected and tolerated

• They hold a very positive view of human nature.

CLASSICAL LIBERALISM

• An early form of liberalism, dominant in the nineteenth century. Formed through the enlightenment and civil war

• Individual liberty is the most important value

• Government should be by consent

• The free market is essential to maximise wealth

• State intervention should be kept to a minimum

• Inequality is natural

• Individuals are responsible for themselves and their welfare

HOBBES & LOCKE

• 17th century

• Believe that men are born with natural rights which include

1. Life and liberty

2. Pursuit of happiness

3. Avoidance of pain

4. Property ownership

• Men are rational and can make their own decisions

• Rights should only be limited if people accept controls by government- so it should be by consent

• We should put laws in place for protection of natural rights

ROUSSEAU & PAINE

• Late 18th century

• Both developed the idea of natural rights and argued that all men should have equal rights

• Mary Wollstonecraft argued that women should also have equal rights

• Focus on reasons rights and justice

• Common sense book 1775 formulated the ideas of social insurance, pensions and a system like the one we have today

• Politics is to uphold individual rights- ages of reason 1794

• Suspicious of unelected bodies

BENTHAM

• Early 19th century

• Developed the idea of Utilitarianism

• Believed man was motivated by pursuit of happiness (meaning the consumption of goods)

• Thought individuals as workers, employers and consumers would pursue own interests and utility would be maximised

• Government should keep intervention to a minimum

• Government should intervene to increase total utility (the greatest good for the greatest number)

• Advocated democracy and government answerable to the electorate

MILL

• Mid 19th century

• Combined ideas of Locke with those of Bentham

• Believed that freedom was a basic right and in the idea of the greatest good for the greatest number

• Also believed that happiness was no just about consumption and property; values are also important

• Developed the harm principle: if an action doesn’t harm others, the government (and other people) shouldn’t interfere

• Stood up for women's rights

• Education is the centre of life

THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL

• 19th century

• Cobden and Bright were important

• Advocates of the free market and free trade

• Famous for leading the anti-corn law league; repeal of the Corn Laws helped to split the Tory party in 1846

• ‘Manchesterism’

SPENCER

• Late 19th century

• Applied Darwin’s evolutionary principles to humans; argued that individuals who adapt best to the economic environment to survive

• Believed people, like animals, were naturally unequal and so some will do better than others

• Government should not interfere to alter this natural state

• Inequality is natural

SMILES

• Late 19th century

• Further developed…